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I have moved my blogs to www.balintsorganizing.blogspot.com. Come visit me there!
****************************************************************************************** Archived blogs: Product Review Kick-off! Can Bandz from The Container Store Wednesday, January 06, 2010
So Christmas is over, and the new year has begun. Usually this would be a time for me to sit back and relax after the rush of the holiday season, but this year that cannot happen for me. This year we will need to sell our house, so that means that for the next two months, I will be painting, fixing, purging, sorting, cleaning, and decorating everything I can reach. In other words, I will be forced to put all of my organizing skills to the test every day for the next two months!
I decided that this is actually a fantastic opportunity for me! I always prefer to recommend products to my clients that I have tried and tested myself, but this is not always possible…until now! I realized yesterday as I was beginning to address my bedroom closet (this closet ALWAYS has issues, but that is for another day) that I would need to make several purchases to address this space and that I would love the chance to review a few products that I have seen but never tried.
So over the next few weeks I am going to write reviews of the products I am using. I hope they help you! Some of the products I am going to review are: The Space Bag The Hannah Jewelry Stand from Bed, Bath, and Beyond The Mommy Hook versus the One Grip Clip The Handbag Hangup Slimline Hanger products
But today I will start with a great little product I found at the Container Store over Christmas. It is called Can Bandz, and it solves the problem of trash bags that won't quite stay on the trash can. They are basically over-sized rubber bands that you put around the edge of your trash bag on the outside of your trash can. The bag stays in place perfectly! I love it. They are reusable, so you shouldn't have to replace them right away...
Unless you don’t heed my one warning: Tell your spouse about this! My husband threw ours away with the trash the first time I used one! :-)
Can Bandz come from the Container Store. You get 15 in a pack for $2.99. Definitely worth it!
Here’s a photo of the product from the Container Store website:
Happy New Year! Balance your life! Nora
Tip for sending thank you cards Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Much to my own chagrin and great embarrassment, I have to admit that I am not good about writing thank you cards. Over the years, I have come up with all kinds of reasons that this might be true, like “I prefer to thank people on the phone,” or “I was with her when I received the gift, so a thank you note might sound phony—I thanked her in person.” But the fact is, there IS no good reason, and there is no excuse. I should send them out. They are lovely to receive, and people enjoy hearing that what they chose for you actually means enough to you that you took extra time to thank them specifically for it.
So this year, I decided to try to come up with a plan for how to tackle and defeat this problem area in my life. Here is what I came up with: I think that if I pre-address the envelopes, I will be successful about getting the cards out.
Here’s why. I don’t mind writing the cards—in fact, I enjoy telling my family and friends how much their gifts mean to me! But I do dread addressing the envelopes, and it seems to take forever. Often, just knowing that I have to do that prevents me from writing the cards in the first place. If I have the envelopes ready and waiting for their cards, I will not be dreading that part of the task, and I will also feel that a project has been started and needs to be completed.
Therefore, when I have some time this week, I will address an envelope here and there. When Christmas day comes, I will have a small pile of empty but addressed envelopes. I will enjoy writing the notes themselves, and will not have the hard part hanging over my head to keep me from the entire task!
Merry Christmas! Balance your life! Nora
This system doesn't work anymore. It must be me. I can't get organized. Saturday, December 19, 2009
It isn't you. It isn't the system. It's life.
Many people think and even say to me "I need to get organized" or "I need to get this space organized" or "I need to figure this out." All of these comments imply that once a specific task is accomplished, things will flow smoothly from that point forward. They then accomplish their goal, things work for a while, and then it just doesn't seem to work anymore. They then assume that they are not really capable of getting organized, or that the system really wasn't that great to begin with.
But in reality, "getting organized" is not a one-shot deal. It is a process. You will need to tweak your systems constantly, because as your life, needs, family, and schedule changes, your organization needs will too. Systems that worked for you last year may not work for you this year.
For example, I used to have a fantastic system for keeping my purse, the kids' backpacks, dance bags, and coats at hand and out of the way. It was perfect. They all hung just inside the door from the kitchen to the garage, where I could grab them on the way out or hang them on the way in, drop items or papers in them throughout the week so that I wouldn't forget them, and keep them hidden from visitors walking through our uncluttered hallway. And then….we moved. We moved to a house with no garage. This house had no hidden area between my kitchen and my car where I could hang these items and still access them. We moved to a city that required more than a light sweater all year. We needed thicker coats and now hats, scarves, and gloves (many pairs, because they are always running away!). The kids were older, so required larger bookbags, more bags, baseball bats instead of dance shoe bags. My old system didn't work anymore! Does that mean it wasn't the perfect system the year before? No - it was! Does that mean that I failed in some way? Of course not. We just moved and things changed. I had to change with it.
The truth is, this happens all the time. I had to figure out a new way to store and access these things, but I did it, and currently it is working. Next year might bring new changes. Maybe my daughter will get a laptop which won't hang on the hooks I have set up, and I will have to change it all again.
The good news is that this tweaking gets easier and easier all the time. After a while it becomes easy to recognize when a system is beginning to be less effective and needs a little tweak. You will see the need more and more quickly and will be able to use your old systems to inspire new ones. And then you will find that YOU, in your attitude, approach, and ideas, have "gotten organized".
Balance your life! Nora
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